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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Medicine Politics

The Great Barrington Declaration strikes back

A month after a BMJ article linking the Great Barrington Declaration to the right wing think tank AIER, the two are attacking the authors of the BMJ piece and denying any payment or even connection. Why?

Categories
Bad science Medicine Politics Popular culture Skepticism/critical thinking

AIER likens anti-“lockdown” cranks to abolitionists. Hilarity ensues

Cranks love a heroic persecution narrative, and the climate science-denying right wing think tank American Institute of Economic Research (AIER) has a doozy: COVID-19 “anti-lockdown” cranks like Scott Atlas and those behind the Great Barrington Declaration are the new abolitionists! This is a page from the antivax playbook.

Categories
Bad science Medicine Politics Pseudoscience

The Great Barrington Declaration (GBD) strikes back again

Cranks love to cry “Persecution!” So it’s no surprise that GBD authors are striking back against critics with that narrative. Again.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine

Alan Lash recycles an old prepandemic antivax trope

Everything old is new yet again, as Brownstone Institute’s Alan Lash recycles old antivax tropes about doctors supposedly being in the thrall of big pharma and therefore untrustworthy.

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Antivaccine nonsense Medicine Politics

Astroturf and think tanks manufacturing doubt about COVID-19 public health interventions

The embrace of antimask and antivaccine views by the right wing is due to more than just clever reaching out by antivaxxers. There’s a big money astroturf machine encompassing various “think tanks” behind it.